Packing up to move back down the street......sigh

[nevetslab]

Just thinking aloud and in no particular order:
* was chiming in to suggest what Drewl did: one of those small AC units on wheels, no need to fully "cool" air inside but pull humidity out of the air andmake air more breathable, that alone is worth it.

* make the lack of space work against them, in a passive aggressive way if you wish: your WORK space is NOT a STORAGE space.

Do not work on 12 pieces at a time (you canīt anyway).
Work on 1 or 2 and the others *stay with them* until their turn arrives.
You work on 1 or 2, nothing waiting outside your shop, when you finish THEY have to send somebody to pick it (from the benchtop) and bring another ... carefully placed BY THEM on your benchtop.
IF they leave something in the hallway, it stays there, all night, unattended.
I bet they will quickly realize that after all the old arrangment was best *or* they add some storge space to yout workshop.

* just curious and you are free to not answer, Iīm only asking because "money runs the World":
- Do they use those 20 hours servicing you pay rent with?
- do they need extra (billed separately) work?
- do you currently have "independent" customers/cashflow to justify keeping that shop?

* how far away is your home? - do you have spare garage space or a small shack where you can work? - is workspace available nearby for a reasonable fee? Lumping these 3 together because all aim at the same problem: do you *need* them?

The trouble with there only being a couple pieces here at a time, days have gone by while there's work needed to be done, but nobody available to drive the trucks to deliver them. If I don't accrue the 20 hrs, it rolls over to the next month. This Mike Campbell project got started, and I now owe for May and June 2021, as I've been working on that project. And more outside ASAP client work stacked up right after that, so as soon as I flush the shop of that work, then I've got 60hrs of labor I have to come up with to catch up, as it will be well into July, or perhaps August by the time I get caught up. I don't yet know when there will be billable hours allowed again...soon I hope.

Those 20 hrs I accrue every month is servicing/repairing their rental gear. I write up invoices on each piece of gear serviced, so there's full accounting in my database, as well as theirs. In the 20 hr labor/space exchange, just the invoice # and hours are recorded, and all tallied to cover the 20hrs. Since the pandemic and I've been back here, I was unable to have billable hours, so just kept busy working, and would accrue hours towards the next month and so on, and work on my own gear or other client gear.

When I had billable hours, that was on a separate invoice, and tallied to that particular month.

I have other clients, but one main client that had been steady, I haven't seen any work from them since August of last year. I need to contact them to see if they've survived, as their existence, like CenterStaging, is all tied to live music venues, tours, stadium concerts, festivals being in full swing. We all got hit big time by the Pandemic, just as Broadway, NY, sporting events, Casinos, all live entertainment. We have picked up work off of the film industry carving out ways to proceed ahead in the midst of the pandemic.

Now, baseball stadiums are being filled to capacity, rumor of Broadway coming back, though I haven't heard of any tours or concerts, festivals coming back. Maybe in 2022.

[Tom Phillips]

I actually have one there, but.....there's no place to run the hot exhaust...

Can you run a flex pipe exhaust out into the hallway?

[nevetslab]

Can you run a flex pipe exhaust out into the hallway?

If I was a cruel SOB, and could get away with it, I'd do that. When I was over at the other building a little while ago, moving one of my tool chests and more gear over, the hallway IS being air conditioned, so they must have added that recently.....might have been done when they had leased the building out last year to a client. That's how I ended up at the new building, where I'd love to stay....makes sense to be here then over there. I'll have to see how much of the cool air comes into the one open door in that shop. Our building maintenance man mentioned he might be able to duct some air into the shop, though I haven't spoken with him further on that. Now that I'm in the process of repopulating the space, I'll press forward with that!

[Tom Phillips]

...Our building maintenance man mentioned he might be able to duct some air into the shop, though I haven't spoken with him further on that...

That sounds promising. The maintenance man would be a good friend to have. Maybe he has a family member who need a guitar amp fixed or he would love a bottle of his favorite poison. I have been successful with both of those trades in the past.

[drewl]

You don't have to vent the hot exhaust, trust me.

[nevetslab]

That sounds promising. The maintenance man would be a good friend to have. Maybe he has a family member who need a guitar amp fixed or he would love a bottle of his favorite poison. I have been successful with both of those trades in the past.

Yup....Carlos and I have been good friends since I've been there (March 2009) He loves my drill press, and while I've been down the street at the main building, he's had it over in his shop. I just learned the 2' x 3' wooden shop cart I built years ago and didn't have room in the shop for it, he's had it in the back of his. I'll make use of that for the portable loudspeaker test station that I'll leave behind, rather than the small banquet table I had set up in winter 2019.

[g1]

You don't have to vent the hot exhaust, trust me.

Route it back into the returns and let the main building unit deal with it.

[Tom Phillips]

Route it back into the returns and let the main building unit deal with it.

Best idea so far. I would be surprised if there was not an existing return in a room of that size.

[nevetslab]

Best idea so far. I would be surprised if there was not an existing return in a room of that size.

Actually, since this space started out as six closets, that had their adjoining walls removed, it ended up being a 33ft x 10ft space with 12ft ceilings. So, I've never seen any air ducting as it was closet spaces. Lighting is a bitch, since the original closet timer switches are still present, hidden behind the shelves that were put up on that wall. One is accessible to get a little more light in the room. I had to have power run in the room with a 60A breaker panel and 120/240 in with 240 feed to run my 5KVA Topaz line conditioner plugged into it, and have 120/60A coming from it to run my large variac/power analyzer.

I sat down in the desk chair a little while ago, after moving remainder of the parts cabinets and small shipping boxes that Mouser USED TO use. The old Dell computer did start up (very surprised), and the roll-around air conditioner next to that desk chair fired up, and was blowing cold air on me....that DID come in from the hallway, so the air conditioning system has improved since I was using the shop in March 2020.

Now dealing with the 'debris field' on the two benches in the shop I'm packing up. I've never accomplished the art of 'tidy technical service', and make use of those pint-size ice cream plastic lids for collecting screws, parts during service. Making progress. Dodgers/Cubs game yesterday resulted in another free Jack-in-the-Box Jumbo Jack with large drink,so, not really being a fan of those, I needed the distraction to keep form working on this. Lunch is over, back to the move.

[Tom Phillips]

... this space started out as six closets, that had their adjoining walls removed...
Now dealing with the 'debris field' on the two benches in the shop I'm packing up...

I've worked in buildings that were reconfigured over and over again with walls added & removed. The HVAC always suffered as a result. Hopefully Carlos will help you out.
I commend your drive to push on with the tasks presented to you.
When things settle down (and I hope they do) please let me know if you received my PM of 22 June.
Cheers,
Tom

[bsco]

And that kind of mess is exactly why I will never work for someone else ever again.

Yeah. I agree....totally.....I have my own small cuppy hole in a building that has other tenants.....my room is EXTREMELY small....130 SQ ft...that's it...I only take so much at a time and when it is repaired it HAS to be picked up pretty much right away....FWIW....if I had to rely on just music gear for repair I would be home most of the time.....I also do vintage consumer audio as well....with everything combined I keep fairly busy and the real beauty is that I do not have to work 5 or 6 days a week 8 hours a day....If I want to take a day or two off I can....flexability was the biggest issue for me at a location that had street access..(no steps)...and cheap rent.....that is why I took this place...it is very tight for space but I have to take the good with the bad...

[bsco]

When I die, I have retired. Until then....hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go..............no funds to retire on.

Do you have any space at home to work from?? then you could pick and choose what you wanted to do...I take it that the old location is not yours...but owned by the same company that you do work for?? Increase the billing and get the repairs delivered...while waiting for their repairs to come in,get some of your own stuff repaired and sold if that is also something that you are doing...I would take outside work from individuals as well.....deposits up front of course....just in case they decline the repair....there must be some way that you can work around this....but I do agree that having little to no notice of having to relocate is not good...here is an idea......I had somebody come to me for a repair.....they had asked me if I was looking for an apprentice......this person was even willing to work for free to learn how to repair this gear....at the present time I am not interested in going that route but I will keep an open mind just in case something happens later down the road....maybe there is somebody that you know and trust to come in and help with the heavier repairs...installing speakers and horns, taking some of the gear apart for you and then re-assembling it after you had the electronics repaired...they could even change out bad jacks, pots,...simple stuff to help free up your time...maybe slip a few cash dollars their way....anyway good luck with this...I do hope it all works out for you in the end....just don't let anybody take advantage of you.....

[nevetslab]

My space at home....I have a full bench, in my living room (work room), from which I outfitted that second shop space that I just packed up and moved. Trouble with working here at home is it's on the second floor. And, last spring, when it looked like I was going to loose my storage lockers, I moved assets from the lockers to the apartment, so now my work room is another 'storage locker'.

One of the things I was hoping to do while at the main building was to start teaching the guitar tech the basics...soldering and repairing cables, simple foot switch pedals.....rewiring the right angle connector on traditional Fender pedals that come with the Twin Reverb, Deluxe Reverb....PITA cable to prepare, but a good skill to know. That's shot down now.

Yes, same company CenterStaging, LLC owns that building

As I knew what would happen....got all the parts cabinets back up onto the shelves, but, with all the rest of the boxes loaded with parts, which has increased in this past year, I'm now swimming in small boxes with no place to put them ....presently stacked up on both work benches that I need for the repair work....so the next few days, I have to waste all that precious time restoring a functional shop. Sigh.......not a thing I can do about that. Still felt like going home, laying down and going fetal until it all went away.

Now for breakfast and back to complete the move out. I did locate my 24" x 36" shop cart that I'll turn into a rolling loudspeaker test station as I had the end of 2019, though that was on a somewhat unstable cheap 4 ft banquet table. I won't move that back until the work installing the sprinkler system into the 40ft by 20ft storage space in our acoustic piano area is completed. All that has to be moved out for the work to be done, which is how I got the word to move back. Then, they wanted to reclaim that space I was in, so at present, there's no place to put me there where I need to be.

[big_teee]

Pretty complex life for a 70+ year old, just saying.
Some how a slower pace would be good.
I'm 72, and retired 10+ years.
No way I could do what your doing now.
Maybe you could work part time for someone else?
Take care, and don't get hurt, one injury can be a game changer!
GL,
T

[bsco]

Back in 1983 I worked for a television repair shop, (GTVR it was called) and I had to travel 30 miles each way just to pick up my service calls and fell out with the managers because they had no idea how to manage a busy workshop. Walked into one of their show rooms with a colour tv in my arms, the door shut abruptly on me and I dropped the tv.
It landed in many pieces. I shouted, "I quit" and left.
Worked for myself and within 6 months, had a 1500sq foot unit in a street we called Millionaires Row on our local industrial estate, employed 7 engineers, employing two drivers to collect repairs from the north and the south.
I retired 30 years later and now have a small repair shop specialising in valve gear, because that is my passion.
Work for someone ... na!

Right on!!!!